New Study Links Gut Bacteria and Satiety (Feeling Full)

Gut bacteria are microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of animals, including humans. According to WebMD, gut microbiota "make vitamins that are vital for life, send signals to the immune system, and make small molecules that can help your brain work." A new study published in Cell Metabolism links gut bacteria to appetite and satiety, that feeling of being full after eating a meal.

Scientists in France discovered that E. coli bacteria in the gut produced more ClpB protein 20 minutes after feeding. To test whether ClpB was associated with the same "feeling of fullness" 20 minutes after a meal, scientists injected the protein into mice and rats.

Gut bacteria, also knows as gut flora or microbia, live in the digestive tract of animals an humans. Gut bacteria helps in the digestion of food. The entire collection of microbia living in and on our bodies is called microbiota. Since the 1990s gut microbiota has been studied to examine possible its relationship to autoimmune disease.

It was found that ClpB protein stimulated release of a hormone called PYY, associated with satiety. According to study co-author Serguei Fetissov, "PYY is one of the main hormones released from the gut after a meal, so it signals satiety to the brain. It starts to be released about 20 minutes after the meal. So, if you look at the dynamic of the bacterial growth, they fit perfectly with the dynamic of PYY release in the blood after the meal."

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